Use this tool to help you turn your critical insights into human-centered design challenges that help you focus on solving the correct problems.
What’s the purpose
Forming insights helps you understand what your users really care about. Now you need to ask yourself how you might help them achieve the value/experience they are looking for. Turning your insights into How Might We (HMW) questions sets you up to answer that question with specific and tangible solutions that will deliver that value to your users.
How to do it
Select an insight that you are curious to explore.
Using the ‘How Might We Worksheet’ template, craft a few How Might We (HMW) questions based on that insight. Aim for questions that inspire curiosity and invite you to explore new territory.
Use the madlib below as a guide to help you. The ‘how’ signifies that there are many possible solutions, the ‘might’ reminds us that we are open to possibilities and don’t yet know what will work, and the ‘we’ tells us that finding a solution is a collaborative effort.
How might we ______ (help, support, enable) _____ (our user) to _______ (solve, improve, or achieve something that they value)?
Select the best HMWs using the following test:
Is it focused on a human being (your users)?
Is it specific enough to yield tangible ideas?
Is it broad enough to allow for a variety of solutions?
Repeat this process for all of your top insights.
Blank templateCompleted How Might We Worksheet Template Example
Tips
Use your best insights to create HMW questions that you are really interested in exploring.
Create HMW questions that will allow you to explore new, unfamiliar territory.
The quality of the question will have direct impact on the quality of the resulting solution.
Make sure there are no solutions baked into your questions - you’re not there yet!
If you’re working in a group, voting can be a helpful way to select your top HMWs.
In day-to-day work
You can use ‘How Might We’ framing to help you solve any challenge in your day-to-day work. For example, suppose you’ve got an upcoming workshop with a non-tech savvy group. In that case, your team might set themselves the following challenge to solve: “How might we limit tech challenges during the workshop to ensure all participants are engaged and relaxed?” Forming ‘How Might We’ questions focuses your efforts around a specific problem and need.
